Doubting Thomas and Believing Without Seeing

  Image source

The Gospel Reading this Second Sunday of Easter is the one where the risen Jesus appears to the disciples and then again to Thomas as he had missed out the first time. 

Thomas had disbelieved the others account of the risen Jesus  and dared to voice his doubts until he had seen Jesus and put his fingers in the wounds of his side and where the nails had pierced his hands and feet.

Different perspectives on this follow : 

It is only in John’s Gospel that Thomas appears and John recognises that honest doubt may be a very necessary prelude to faith. 

As Tennyson said: “There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds.” Thomas is the one who stands for the virtue of honesty in our faith –

Thomas was a ‘pragmatic concrete thinker.’ He refused to say he understood what he did not understand. He refused to say he believed what he did not believe. Maybe he was a natural pessimist, a half empty glass rather than a half full glass type of person.

What made him tick? How come he wasn’t there the first  time Jesus appeared to the disciples? 

Perhaps he was so depressed over the death of Jesus that he wanted to get away, to be alone, to give himself time to think and decide what to do next. 

Perhaps he was in retreat, backing off, bemused at the stories the women had told them of seeing Jesus after his death. Perhaps he was the only one brave enough to venture out to get some food while the others cowered indoors.

When he eventually met up with the disciples and listened to their excited testimony why didn't he believe them? 

Perhaps he had had too many disappointments in his life. Perhaps he was just one of those people who was cautious and guarded and didn’t want to risk being taken for a ride.

It’s said the resurrection did not result in a committee with a chairman, but in a fellowship with an experience. Thomas found faith in the fellowship of a community and in the presence of the Risen Lord yet it was also an intensely personal experience.

A new understanding of faith had to be born in the disciples hearts . It’s not about “seeing and believing.” Jesus tells them.

And then Jesus affirms the faith of generations to come. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Karl Rahner said somewhere that when you come to the void there is no proof either way. There can be no certainty as to whether the void is absolute emptiness or whether it is the sheer openness of love. You have to make a choice.

More Reflections

• Click On Easter Are You A Doubting Thomas ? and there are two more reflections on Thomas and the Story of Easter by Jack Crabtree here at The McKenzie Study Centre and there's another one here Behind Closed Doors.
•  Nice one here too from a blog called Pass The Toast

Why and how do I embrace uncertainty and doubt  ? 

• Over at Monastic Mumblings the author has this to say.

Painting below by John Granville Gregory Still Doubting .

Gregory emulates the style of Caravaggio below  using contemporary and realistic figures to show the story of Thomas encountering the Risen Christ.From Fr. James B. Simpson and George H. Eatman's A Treasury of Anglican Art (New York: Rizzoli, 2002).  Courtesy of Mr. Eatman.

To trust

that the Eternal has substance

and that Goodness fills this world with creation

despite the evil

that seems so more prevalent

It is a task

I cannot complete until I sit still

and open

my heart

asking, in whatever way I am able

Take me in Jesus.

Poem by Angela York Crane from Best and Worst Blog.